Recon report: 2upGamers 5th Round

Friday, 4 May. Or, more properly, May the fourth, which is like a Sith lisping which is why Dumidu “onelargeprawn” Surasinghe is dressed up like a Jedi with a pool noodle dressed up like a lightsabre. It’s not actually as complicated as it sounds.

More than 100 people turned up for 2upGamers’ 5th Round at the Rygersdal Sports Club in Rondebosch – 80 of whom signed up within the first two hours or registration opening two days previously – and it’s kind of incredible to think that just a few months ago, only about 40 people attended the first event. Some gamers were driving in from as far as the northern suburbs, which is basically the other side of the planet by Cape Town standards.

The big news on the night was that, going forward, 2upGamers will now be attached to Glenn Alexander’s 4.elements Gaming Festivals company, and proceeds from future events will go to charity. Real gamers making a real difference. Sniff.

Guest speakers included Reader’s Den comic shop manager Nizar Abrahams, Prototype 2 live action trailer star Vince Andrews, Springleap boss Eran Eyal, the eGamer and Ozone South Africa teams, MWEB’s resident brony Reinhard “Chocs” Rheeder-Kliest, and as always, the Friends of Design bunch who had attendees pool noodling each other for one of ten game design course vouchers.

"They're not pool noodles, they're lightsabres."

"Search your balloon, you know it to be true."

Eran gave out free T-shirts. Everybody loves free T-shirts. Meanwhile, Friends of Design's Philipp Schmid jealously guarded his balloons.

With the intervention of 2upGamers' Glenn Alexander, Alex Mercer and James Heller were able to put their differences behind them just long enough to take this photo. Then they tore down the building with giant tentacles. They didn't really, but that would have been awesome. Also, is that a bit of curtain on Mercer's arm? Mom's gonna be so mad.

Ozone South Africa took the opportunity to announce a new clan sponsorship initiative, featuring console gaming clan High 5, headed up by Nicholas "Holden ZA" Holden and Franco "dastrix550 ZA" Undisclosed-Surname, who presumably has a real surname but wouldn't tell anybody what it was.

Holden ZA is also the tallest man alive, although you can't really see it in this photo.

Some NAG Online forumites doing their best impressions of normal people. Paul's still working on it.

The next 2upGamers is going down on Friday, 1 June. Make sure to follow @2upGamers on Twitter or keep hitting their official site or Facebook for more info. In the meantime, here’s a photo dump from Friday’s event – spot yourself and win a surprise prize*!

*The surprise is there’s no prize.